Reducing Inequality

The UN says that one of the aims of the SDGs is to ‘reduce inequality, and spur economic growth’. Under capitalism, this claim is contradictory: uncontrolled economic growth has concentrated immense amounts of wealth in the hands of an elite few through the processes of deregulation, financialisation, and austerity. Global GDP has grown by 271 percent since 1990, but the number of people living on less than $5 a day has increased by more than 370 million.

The flaws of the system become clearer in the context of a crisis, with Covid-19 forcing 71 million people into poverty in 2020. The wealth of the ten richest men, meanwhile, has increased by over £400 billion – enough to pay for the vaccinations of everyone on the planet and reverse the rise in poverty that the pandemic has caused.

At the current rate, we will fail to meet Goal 1: ending poverty in all forms globally. It’s worth noting that this Goal itself falls short, even in its idealism: the SDGs measure poverty at below $1.25 a day – a level that has been continuously challenged by various development experts and activists. Peter Edward, an academic at Newcastle University, has argued that the ethical poverty line—the amount needed for normal human life expectancy of just over 70 years old—is 2.7-3.9 times this rate. As it stands, then, the SDGs measure poverty in a way that produces blindspots and actively excludes millions of people in order to back questionable claims of progress.

The Global North/South divide makes top-down prescriptions of ‘development solutions’ all the more problematic. Since 1960, average incomes between people living in the richest and poorest countries have grown by 135 percent. This is not an oversight, but a result by design: the SDGs initially had two targets focused on equitable sharing of global sources, but they were removed in a last-minute decision.

Advocacy for ‘a global partnership’ in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development falls short in its ability to account for contemporary factors of international trade, such as free trade zones and offshoring, which lead to international relations that are inequitable, unjust, and exploitative; the OECD estimates that developing countries lose three times more to tax havens than they receive in international aid each year. Often, these factors are the brainchildren of the neoliberal architects behind the largest and most powerful development organisations and financial institutions themselves.

Saving the Environment

Another focal area of the SDGs is environmentalism and ecology. Again, these targets fail to address the worsening climate crisis with the urgency required.

In 2019, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that global sea levels would rise by no more than 1.10 metres by 2100. However, climate researchers from the University of Copenhagen announced earlier this month that sea levels could rise by as much as 1.35 metres after finding that models used by the IPCC were not sensitive enough.

The SDG Index, which uses indicators to measure progress on the goals, is problematic in its methodology. By design, the ecological indicators are consistently outweighed by development indicators, which means that if a country performs well on development indicators they will score highly despite potentially failing in terms of sustainability. This bias is not coincidental, but reflects a capital-focused definition of development which prioritises economic growth over its consequences for the majority of the world’s population and the planet.

The SDGs also fail to account for the fact that achieving environmental goals is effectively impossible within the existing system. Multi-billion dollar corporations have come to dominate the existing form of turbo-capitalism, characterised by incessant extractivism, monopolisation of vital resources, exploitation of workers, and violent abuse of our natural environment. Not only are these conglomerates to blame, but the climate crisis is predominantly being fuelled by an elite few. Individuals in the richest 1 percent of the global population emit 100 times more carbon emissions than those in the poorest half; 20 corporations are responsible for over a third of all greenhouse gas emissions, with four of them responsible for over 10 percent of the world’s carbon emissions since 1965.

Transformation, Not Tokens

The SDGs have done little to spur significant collective action from international governments; instead, they serve as an attractive publicity tool. In the meantime, corporate interests have been accommodated, and the capitalist class tended to. The Goals lack any historical perspective on the crises we face today – from the devastating impact of colonialism to the crippling structural adjustment plans that paved the way for a global system of neoliberalism.

To truly make a difference, we must abandon the idea of development confined within a capitalist framework – one characterised by extractivism and overconsumption, a global assault on workers and welfare, and growing wealth hoarding in the hands of an elite few. As Jason Hickel highlights in his new book, degrowth—a rejection of GDP as the primary indicator of ‘development’, without any consideration of the impact of this ‘development’ on the lives of working people—may prove the only viable option if we are committed to creating a world that puts people over profit, and prioritises equity, community, and humanity.

It is imperative that we make space to redefine development, and look to a definition that goes beyond conforming to the hegemonic structures of power. Rather, we should ask what a more just and empowering global society should look like, and use our answers to create a programme that is transformative, rather than tokenistic.